1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a photosensitive element for electrophotography, provided for electrostatic latent image formation used in electrophotography apparatuses such as copying machines and laser printers, to a photosensitive device for electrophotography and to an electrophotography apparatus comprising the photosensitive element.
2. Description of the Related Art
A photosensitive element for electrophotography conventionally used in electrophotographic process in copying machines or laser printers comprises a conductive base tube having a photosensitive laser of an organic material formed thereon. The conductive base tube is prepared by processing an aluminum pipe by cutting in an appropriate length followed by abrading the surface thereof to be availed for the use as a photosensitive element for electrophotography.
The base tube of the conventional photosensitive element requires an expensive aluminum material, and a time-consuming processes such as cutting-off and abrading. Furthermore, since the photosensitive element is an expendable part, it requires a lot of labor in collection and classification for reuse of the metallic parts.
As a method for solving the problems, another related art disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 7-152194 (1995) has been proposed. In this related art, a drum served as a base tube is made of a synthetic resin. The cost of molded products depends on the amount of the resin. In particular, in the case of a resin drum to be used as a photosensitive element, an expensive resin is used. Accordingly, a thin drum is preferable with respect to the cost reduction. On the other hand, however, a thin drum is weak with respect to shock. Furthermore, a resin drum tends to weaken the adherence in the fitting portion of a drum base tube and a flange compared with the aluminum tube conventionally used.